Noon on Monday, May 23, 2022, Tahlanji area, Amiri street, Abadan, Khuzestan: In the upper right corner of the screen of a CCTV, the exact time of the collapse of the new 10-storey Metropol building is engraved: 05/23/2022 | 12:37:56
The building that collapsed was one of the Metropol’s twin towers, owned by Abdolbaghi Holdings. The Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the holding is Hossein Abdolbaghi. He is a 41-year-old man with three brothers. His father used to sell nuts on a cart.
The distance between Abdolbaghi’s nut shop and the headquarters of Abdolbaghi Group is only a few steps.
Abdolbaghi nut shop was burning on fire on Thursday night, people throwing packages of nuts on the street pavement, shouting they are “haram” (religiously forbidden).
In the words of an Abadan resident, “half of Abadan belongs to Hossein Abdolbaghi.” He has most of the city officials in his pocket, from the governor to prosecutor and leaders of IRGC to the municipality of Abadan.
The head of the Construction Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Islamic Republic version of a parliament, MohammadReza Rezaei-Kochi, on a TV program last night, admitted: “Abadan Municipality was co-owner of the Metropol building and there was a conflict of interest. They had changed the construction permit from 4-storey to 10. Neither the Abadan Municipality nor the Abadan Prosecutor’s Office nor the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development paid attention to the warnings and correspondence of the Engineering Organization. The violations were so obvious that even ordinary people could notice them when they looked at the building.”
Sadegh Jafari-Chegni, the Attorney General of Khuzestan province, used all his efforts and influence to “kill” Hossein Abdolbaghi. The first day he was arrested and the next day he was declared a “victim”.
Within 28 hours, he announces the results of the DNA identification test, which in the best conditions and with the most advanced equipment and facilities, takes at least 3 days to a few weeks.
The distance between Abdolbaghi and the ruling system is less than the nut shop to Abdolbaghi Holdings
Khamenei gives a speech three days after the crime which the number of its victims has not yet been determined – as of this writing, the state media reported 29 dead. Abadan has no place in this speech. Six days have passed since the Metropol crime. The smell of corpses under the rubble reaches Saadi and Shahriyar streets in Tehran, but no one has yet heard a word of condolence and sympathy from Khamenei. What the regime’s media outlets published as “condolences” on the fourth day after the crime, called “Khamenei’s condolences,” was a five-line, machine-generated message issued by the media team of Khamenei’s office; not his personal message. A look at the special page of Khamenei’s messages on his website shows that, for example, in May, 6 messages of condolence were issued by Khamenei’s media team.
Two cases of condolences are related to the deaths of the mullahs’ mothers and wives (JavadiAmoli’s wife and GhaziAskar’s mother) and one case concerns the staff of his own office (the wife of Mohammad Javad Irvani, the auditor in charge of Khamenei’s office). Three other cases have been reported in connection with the deaths of two mullahs (Mehdi Bojnourdi, Abdullah Fateminia) and a senior regime propagandist (Nader Talebzadeh). Fateminia’s death on May 16 and Bojnourdi’s on April 22 were reported in the media. Khamenei’s office immediately issued a message of condolence to both elderly clerics on the day of their deaths. For the victims of Abadan, however, four days must pass before the building collapses so that Khamenei can express his appreciation and “thanks” to the perpetrators of this crime in his “message of condolence” as “government officials”: “I need to thank the government officials for their days of activities and demand serious and complete follow-up in this matter.”
Of course, the reason for the issuance of this “message” by Khamenei’s office on Thursday, May 26, 2022, should be sought more in the protest slogans of Abadanis on Wednesday evening: “I will kill, I will kill, whoever killed my brother! Reza Shah, God bless your soul! Cannon, tank, firecrackers, mullahs must get lost! death to Khamenei!” And …
Protests on Thursday, after Khamenei issued a “thank you message” to government officials, not only did not diminish but intensified and expanded. The people of Khorramshahr, Behbahan, Bandar Abbas and Shahinshahr also took to the streets and pointed their chants at exactly the same officials that Khamenei thanked:
Khamenei’s newspaper, Kayhan, published pictures of Texas victims on its front page. From the first hours of the Metropol crime, Khamenei’s main media outlet, IRIB, broadcast untrue reports that could not silence the cries of mothers in the background. The IRGC news agency, Fars, reduced the number of protesters to “a few hundred”, removed and distorted the slogans of the people, and tried to lead their protests in a false and fake direction:
Last night, however, the regime could not stand it anymore. It showed its real and inhuman face to the people. With tear gas and bullets fired, with batons and uniforms, with the “special unit” that was stationed at the scene from the very first moment after the collapse of the Metropol building, regime greeted the mourning people:
Last night, people of Ramhormoz, Mahshahr, Bushehr, Yazd, Baghmalek, Shahinshahr, Ahvaz took to the streets in solidarity and sympathy with Abadan. Shouts like “Our enemy is here, They lie saying it is America! Leave Syria, think about us! Shame on Khamenei, leave our country alone! Reza Shah, God bless your soul!” and “we made a mistake in making the revolution” are all expressions of a truth; That the “nut shop of the system” is turning into ashes.
The people have targeted the central structure of the regime.
Translation of this post by Sahar.